Flume

Twitter user Electric Hawkhas broke news that has undoubtedly made many dreams come true after posting a clip of Damon Albarn from Gorillaz speaking to Beats1 in an interview. The Gorillaz frontman mentioned that he had been in the studio with Australian DJ and Producer Flume, which is doubly exciting given the producer’s dark phase that began in 2018.

Flume recently announced that he had new music coming in 2019, and it’s now looking like a potential Gorillaz collaboration will be a part of what is to come. If they do release a song together, it will likely be different than anything we have heard from the band or producer to date — which only builds the anticipation for their potential collaboration.

BENZI, A favorite “make-out party DJ,” let loose the 15th rendition of his high energy GIRL TRAPZ series. Featuring 45 cuts and all-star caliber sounds from the likes of Flume, RL Grime, Rihanna, Calvin Harris and many more, Benzi continues to showcase his energized appeal on a platter of popular new edits paired with older gems. The future bass and trap mix is perfect for fake iPhone DJing, divorce ceremonies, keggers, pregames, slapping the bag, primetime, tailgates, frat parties, and even festival sets if a DJ forgets their go-to USB.

Known for his beloved edits, mashups, and bootlegs; BENZIis a BBC Radio 1 mainstay and Diplo & Friends stop-by who is also featured on Sirius XM#BANGUERS with BENZI. With crates running deep, there’s no telling what this genre chemist will come up with next, but what’s certain is uncontrollable head bobbing while organizing an impromptu party with all your friends.

After a silent 2018, after the critical acclaim of his sophomore LP, Skin,Flume closed out the year taking to social media to let fans know new music is on its way in 2019. The last time the Australian record producer released new music was his Skin Companion EP II that dropped February of 2017. In a relaxed state, the trendsetter who brought future bass to the mainstream tells his followers “Next year I’ll be back in your life, I promise.” This year was spotlighted by orchestral performances of his music and a back-to-back set at Burning Man with Diplo.

Flume’s big breakthrough in the electronic music space came with a stellar remix of Disclosure’s “You & Me.” Eventually he would go on to win the Best Dance/Electronic Album Grammy with his lauded Skin LP. Now, listeners are eager for whats to come next from the “Never Be Like You” producer as a follow up to his last studio work seems to be underway in 2019.

Burning Man is no average festival, and as such, the desert-based event warrants no average sets.

“I’m guilty of getting lazy and keeping some of the same routine and playing [the] same songs,” Diplo wrote in a recent Instagram post that contained ten clips from the DJ’s various sets over the course of the weekend. “But at BM I get to play records for the first time, bring back old records, improvise, connect with old friends, find new energy, do amazing back to back sets,” Diplo continued.

Diplo delivered a multitude of sets that allowed the LSD constituent to break with his standard MO across various Burning Man stages — including the no name camp, camp jou jou, the 747, and the church, among others. Instead, they got to watch him live as he shuffled through his library to drop some heat that rivaled even the temps of Black Rock City.

“…creating a vibe w friends and random people riding bikes around you is some of the moments that make me feel like DJing is still one of the greatest jobs in the world. And I’m so lucky,” Diplo concludes the post. Swipe through Diplo’s Instagram collage to relive some of the producer’s liveliest moments at Burning Man 2018.

Every year, fans can expect some wild performances at Burning Man, and this year proves to be no different. Leading the pack, we have Diplo and Flume plotting a special back-to-back set from the Playa this year. While Diplo will deliver several different sets during the course of the week-long event, he will notably appear alongside the Skin producer on August 31 for a 12:00 to 2:00am.

Diplo and Flume’s joint appearance won’t be the only exciting performance at Black Rock City this year. ZHU, Skrillex, Seven Lions and more will also take the decks at Burning Man, with Skrillex slowly revamping his presence on the events circuit as the year winds down. Skrillex recently appeared on the lineups for Arizona’s Snowta and Decadence festivals, and now he’s making his annual trip out to the burn. With people currently flocking to the Nevada desert for this year’s iteration of the event, expect a number of additional high profile artists to spring up at Burning Man too.

Flume sat down with Zane Lowe on Beats 1 to dish on past collaborations, life before and after Future Classic, and the two documentaries recently released on him, When Everything Was New and Sleepless: The Story Of Future Classic, both of which are now available via Apple Music. The former is Flume’s own documentary, while the latter divulges into how the Future Classic label catapulted Flume’s career in its most incipient stages.

Flume tells Lowe how he entered a contest with Future Classic, simply to get his name on the map. Though Flume placed runner up in the competition, his decisive entry catalyzed the two entities quintessential relationship.

Known to work some of the industry’s most cerebral, influential rappers into his beat heavy productions, like Vic Mensa and Vince Staples, Flume comments on what he looks for in those types of collaborations.

“I just want to I want to find people who are doing something different and open to working with different sounds and unconventional beats and rigid open-minded people who have something to say,” Flume says. “And yeah I think that’s something that I’ve definitely felt working with Vince and Vic and a bunch of other people.”

Currently, he says he is keen on working with JPEGMAFIA, who recently released his fourth solo record, Veteran.

The Aussie, who has been less active lately than in previous years, also reveals he has bought a one-way ticket to Sri Lanka, where he plans to focus entirely on new music. He says been “writing all the time,” and that this time around he is “going back into the heavy.”

A definitive time scale by which new Flume music will arrive remains elusive, but the ID that the Australian producer shared during a recent performance at Australia’s Field Day Festival arrives as evidence of time spent in the studio.

Defined by its eccentric electronic embellishments and mounting percussive elements, the ID bears the distinct trappings not only of a Flume release, but of a would-be fan favorite, pending release.

Flume‘s 2016 sophomore studio LP, Skin was unanimously hailed as a triumph that not only built on his self-titled debut album from four years prior, but cemented the young Australian producer’s reputation as one of the brightest music makers in the world right now. The project brought in firepower from the likes of Kai, Vince Staples, AlunaGeorge, and Beck, all complementing Flume’s amorphous, fluid creations, and ultimately snagged the Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album in 2017. However, of all the ensuing remixes, reworks, and covers that were inspired from Skin, the Chamber Orchestra at Westridge School in Pasadena, California’s rendition of “Tiny Cities” stands head and shoulders above the rest.

Covering all of the original’s complex intricacies, the orchestra delves into the song’s bold strings, precise piano notes, and fleeting percussive accents. Even without Beck’s syncopated delivery and vocoded topline, this acoustic version of “Tiny Cities” is a justified homage to one of Flume’s top masterworks.